“I’ll get him,” Alonzo said. He drew his gun, keeping his body between the hit man and his weapon so Alderman would never see it coming. He turned and fired in one motion, putting a bullet squarely between the eyes. He died instantly.

Alonzo turned his attention to the dispatcher. “You kept the 911 calls about the shooting at the bakery from going through, didn’t you?”

The man moaned and rocked, his eyes bouncing all over the place in stark fear. There was no mercy in Alonzo, not one ounce. Not since he’d learned the target had been Evangeline and not him. Fucking dirtbags.

“You’re supposed to be the good guys,” he reminded softly. “Are you on Amodeo’s payroll?”

The dispatcher shook his head. “You made a mistake. A terrible mistake.”

“I can hear lies,” Alonzo said. “I can smell them. You’re lying. Even now, when it might give you an easy death, you’re lying to me.” He turned to the cop. “What about you? Do you want to lie too?”

“You don’t understand,” Phillips said, tears streaming down his face. “He threatened me. Threatened to kill me. I had no choice.”

“So all that money we found in your account is just a coincidence.”

“He planted it.”

Alonzo shook his head. Patrizio Amodeo might force cooperation by threatening to kill someone as well as their entire family, but he would never part with money unnecessarily.

“Have you ever heard of shifters?” He pulled his gloves off. Flexed his fingers. Carefully he shrugged out of his jacket, handed it to Gorya and began to unbutton his shirt. “Specifically, leopard shifters?”

Both men stared at him. Timur reached out and took the shirt, folding it with meticulous care. The prisoners’ eyes widened in shock. Alonzo had almost forgotten the scars crisscrossing his chest and sinking low into his trousers. His hands dropped to his belt.

“In Russia, we have a rare leopard called the Amur leopard. There are very, very few of them left. The fur on these leopards is thick and long to adapt to the snow. The rosettes are wider spaced and larger than other leopards’. What’s important for you to know, what I think you’ll find the most interesting, is that they have denticles on their tongues.” His hands paused on his belt buckle. “Timur, perhaps you would like to explain to these uneducated men just what denticles are and what they’re used for.”

Timur pulled off his gloves slowly and nodded. “Denticles are hooks or tiny rasps on the Amur leopard’s tongue. They are used to scrape the meat right off the bones of their prey.”